Parks and Recreation: "Are You Better Off?"Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the Parks and Rec Season 5 finale follow...

Parks and Rec exited Season 5 on a strong note with "Are You Better Off?" - an episode that was almost all set-up for (hopefully) a sixth season. It wasn't as good as finales of the past like "Li'l Sebastian" and "Win, Lose or Draw," but part of the reason for that might lie in the fact that the extremely satisfying episode "Leslie and Ben" (which also contained the traditional Mouse Rat finale performance) was originally conceived as possibly being the last episode of the season. And it felt more like a season ender than this week's chapter; although "Leslie and Ben" was mostly all resolution whereas this finale focused more on moving our characters to new places in their lives for next year.

That being said, one of the things Parks always does well is utilize its own board game pieces for comedy and bringing together a coalition of insane Leslie Knope haters, headed by Kathryn Pinewood of the Pawnee Restaurant Association, was a great move. The rest of the hater horde was made up of Marcia Langman and her faaabulous husband Marshall from the Society for Family Stability Foundation, the local garbage men who were upset about losing one of their bathrooms to newly hired female employees, and the perpetually stoned duo, formerly of Pawnee's Animal Control Department, Harris and Bret (yes!). So basically anyone who had lost a political battle with Leslie in the name of equality and progress.

This story piggybacked a little off of the dismay Leslie felt last week at the end of "Swing Vote" when Ron asked her a question about how much she wanted to be in politics if it meant having to deal with corrupt slimeballs like Jamm. By the way, Jamm? Conspicuously absent from the Recall Knope brigade, although I'm sure he'll weasel his way into their ranks eventually. At some point Leslie must realize that all the female politicians she admires have their own vehement detractors. Oh well, at least she has her town supporters from the porn industry, Dennis and Brandi Maxxx - of Argo and OurGoo fame!

The best part of this episode though was the mighty return of Bert Macklin, complete with a nice little fake-out involving April possibly being pregnant. Despite her plan to wait until she's 50 and then adopt creepy adult twins from Romania. Sure, waiting until next season for the return of Macklin (You son of a bitch!) would have been a bit sweeter, but with a show like Parks and Rec and a network like NBC, you have to seize your opportunities when they're presented. Macklin was meant to be gone before the original finale (the aforementioned "Leslie and Ben") and when the chance came about to bring him back one more time before possibly ending things for good (again), it was too good to pass up.

Bert Macklin represents Andy at both his greatest and dumbest. Even Ann's dismissive "Oh boy. What do you want, Macklin?" was priceless. Especially since it was coming from an ex of his who probably had to put up with crazy Macklin-syle antics for the duration of their relationship. "This case just remained interesting," Macklin stated, upgrading the search for the pregnant office worker to that of a case that has been interesting from the start.

Meanwhile, Macklin's investigation helped distract Tom from a business suitor (I'm not saying it's Diddy, but I'm also not saying it isn't Diddy) who wanted to buy Rent-A-Swag by convincing him that he'd accidentally gotten Mona Lisa pregnant. "What have I done, like, to humanity?" Tom lamented as Jean-Ralphio hilariously panicked and tried to think of way out of being an uncle. Thankfully, Mona Lisa was on too many types of ingestible no-no's to be fertile and Tom was let off the hook.

There was a noticeable lack of Ron in this finale but he did wind up being the one to get hit with the biggest life-change at the end when it was revealed/inferred that Diane was the woman who'd left the positive pregnancy stick (Womb, There It Is!) at Ron's cabin. And so it has happened. Swanson and Xena are procreating, perhaps to spawn the mankind-destroying super baby that Andy predicted back in "Lucky."

April going to veterinary school in Bloomington will, of course, all work out in the end, although it did seem odd for this change to happen so close to her getting the Director of Animal Control gig. So in "Are You Better Off?" we got a nice change for April, a world change for Ron and some possible future hardships for Tom and Leslie. Although the two of them still have their Parks jobs to fall back on so it's not as if their world will totally collapse. Although Leslie is crazy when it comes to her dedication to what is mostly a thankless profession/lifestyle and it looks like she might have to scratch and claw to keep the job she fought so hard to win. Right now, given the dire state of NBC, things look good for a renewal, which is great news all around. Because this show is to me what parades and Ben's butt are to Leslie.